Category: domain setup

Freenom is currently offering domain names for the first year.
They’re a domain name registrar which means that they allow you to buy and manage domain names off their marketplace.
While it is only specific domain names alias on offer, it’s still a great deal for those looking to create testing websites or get their foot online without spending any money first.

How to sign up for a free domain name with Freenom

Step 1 – Search for your own domain name on Freenom

Step 2 – Select your preferred domain name alias

Choose whether you want .tk, .ml, .ga, .cf, .gq as your domain name alias. Then click on Check out

Step 3 – Select your plan with Freenom

Select your plan from the list of options in the drop down menu after selecting your domain name alias.

Step 4 – Review your purchases

You’ll then need to share details to sign up, such as email address, etc. as per domain name registration requirements.
Review and confirm your email address, as they’ll send you a validation email to click and confirm your email address. You’ll have up to 24 hours to confirm your email address.

How to verify your site ownership on Google Webmasters Console on HubSpot

First of all, what is Google Webmasters Console?

Google Webmasters Console is Google’s interface and communication channel between webmasters and Google. They found that while than passively indexing websites using web spiders was effective, sometimes webmasters simply didn’t know something on their website was lacking (e.g. dead links, excessive load times, etc.). So this is their way to actively let webmasters who opt in to communicate know.

How do I use Google Webmasters Console?

This is not a guide to go through all parts of the tool, as it’s constantly expanding in features. Google has been spending a fair bit of time recently bringing in the Google Webmasters Console and Google Analytics together.
One of the things that Google needs you to do to get started is to prove you are indeed a webmaster and own the domain/ subdomains that you are looking to manage.
Google lists a variety of different ways to check and verify you own the site. They are as follows:

Step 1 – Log into Google Webmasters Console via your Google account

Step 2 – Add your website “property”

There will be an option to add your “property” to the Google Webmasters Console. Click on the “Add Property” button to do so.

Step 3 – Select HTML tag

Select HTML tag, where we will need to add a meta tag to your site’s home page.

Step 4 – Add Meta Tag to your HubSpot portal

Go to your HubSpot portal. Find “Content Settings” under “Content” and then find a section called, “Site Header HTML” and add in the meta tag that Google would have provided to you.
It should look something like this.
Once you have set this up on HubSpot, scroll down and click the blue “Save” button.

Step 5 – Click Verify on Google’s Search Console

Click “Verify” on Google’s Search Console so that they check your website for the meta tag.

Step 6 – Success

You should have a confirmation of success.
If it is not working, you may need to explore other options to prove that you own the website URL that you are asking Google to allow you to manage as a webmaster.
Please reach out to Google Webmasters Central Help Forums for help if you get stuck. As HubSpot Support won’t have access to Google’s system.
Here are some common verification errors mentioned by Google below.

In addition to any method-specific verification errors, the following verification errors are possible in most verification methods:

The connection to your server timed out.

We were unable to verify your file because we received a server timeout. This could be because your server is down or is busy and responding slowly. Make sure that your server is responding and try again.

We encountered an error looking up your site’s domain name.

We tried to access your verification file, but were unable to access your domain due to a DNS error. This could be because your server is down, or there is an issue with the DNS routing to your domain. Make sure that your domain is resolving correctly and try again.

The download request was redirected too many times.

Check the URL for potential issues, such as an infinite loop.

Your server returned an invalid response.

This can happen if your site is requires password authentication, or if we cannot access it for other reasons.

We were unable to connect to your server.

Make sure that your server is not down, and that your domain is resolving correctly, and try again.

How does the subdomains look like conceptually?

You’ll be basically doing something like the following diagrams, however, you’ll be creating independent “subdomains”.
In this example, we assume your current set up is:
www.dejavuguides.com
for your main website, and you have your domain name (managed by your “domain name registrar”) pointing to your own website hosting provider. Example providers include SiteGround, BlueHost, DreamHost.

Current subdomain would be pointing to your current website hosting host’s server

If you’d like to use any subdomains with HubSpot, you’ll need to point that to a HubSpot website hosting server.
In this example, we assume your current set up is:
www.dejavuguides.com
for your main website, and you have your domain name (managed by your “domain name registrar”) pointing to HubSpot’s website hosting server.
1621557.group7.sites.hubspot.net
(note – you’ll have your own shared website hosting server)

Change your current subdomain to point to your HubSpot website hosting server